The city government agents led by Plimene pushed forward with overwhelming force through the Trinity Building that had completely transformed into another realm.
Rata-ta-ta-ta-ta!
The high-explosive rounds poured out while maintaining formation, literally turning the charging corrupted beings into powder.
No matter how sturdy and excellent the regenerative abilities of the corrupted beings were, they were no different from easily extinguished candles before overwhelming firepower.
Above all, the firearms used by the agents were not ordinary standard equipment to begin with. Befitting people who moved with special situations in mind, even the weapons they used were wickedly powerful things that far exceeded normal specifications.
Even something that simply had the appearance of a pistol was three times the size of other pistols, and each time it fired, it produced not a gunshot but something like cannon fire.
Just one such weapon alone would be worth an enormous amount, yet they were equipped with such weapons as if wallpapered with them. This was only possible to operate because of the city government's overwhelming financial support.
Naturally, because the weapons they used were so overwhelmingly powerful, the corrupted beings who were immune to ordinary bullets fell all too easily.
Rather than just being penetrated by gunfire, entire sections of their bodies were torn away.
The characteristic of corrupted beings was that no standard existed for them.
-Kaaaaaak!
The distant corrupted beings opened their mouths wide. Their oral cavities, which no longer retained any human form, split into four parts with a ripping sound, revealing bright red flesh inside.
Sticky saliva, densely packed teeth and even tongues with thorns. From those mouths, they rapidly shot out something.
Tu-tu-tu-tu-tu!
Those were sharp spines. Flying at tremendous speed, they possessed the power to easily pierce through steel plates.
However, the city government agents didn't panic and responded calmly.
The agents at the front stepped back one pace, and naturally those waiting in the second row came forward to the front. They held up large riot shields as big as their own bodies.
Ti-ti-ti-ting!
Bluish magical power flowed over the shields as barriers deployed, and the attacks launched by the distant corrupted beings were futilely blocked. Naturally, the agents' counterattack began. In an instant, a spray of blood erupted as the spine-shooting creatures were torn to shreds.
It was quite a grotesque sight, but perhaps because I had adapted to staying in this blood-colored world, such scenes now felt somewhat exhilarating.
"Don't let your guard down. Their attacks aren't over yet."
No sooner had Plimene finished speaking than the flesh walls writhed and the wall at the waist level of the formation opened wide. Then, with thudding sounds, corrupted beings over 3 meters tall burst out. Instead of flesh, they wore armor made of ivory-colored teeth and bones interwoven across their entire bodies.
"It's an ambush!"
"Shoot! Stop them!"
Immediately, a barrage poured out. The lead corrupted being couldn't hold out long and fell, its armor shattered and turned to pulp, but the corrupted beings behind it safely reached the agents' formation.
The moment when the massive creatures with size and strength broke through the center, causing chaos, other corrupted beings would rush through that gap.
However, the corrupted beings' plan was thwarted from the start. Those who had been waiting in advance inside the formation moved.
-Hissss! Clank!
Armored soldiers wearing steam suits about 3 meters in size stepped forward. Not inferior in size even compared to the massive corrupted beings, they held shields and collided with the charging corrupted beings.
-Kwaaang!
With a thunderous sound, the charging corrupted being staggered backward. The armored soldier holding the shield actually stepped forward one pace. A violently vibrating chainsword was swung.
Kiiiiing! Ka-ga-ga-ga-gak! Drrrrrrk!
The chainsword sparked as it wore down the charging corrupted being's armor, then ground up all the soft flesh inside as well.
-Hissss!
Condensed steam jetted out from between the joint seams, and the armored soldier immediately swung his weapon toward the next corrupted being.
This situation played out simultaneously in multiple locations. Naturally, the corrupted beings that had believed the charging units would open a path and followed behind them ended up ramming their heads into the opponent's solid defense instead.
Looking at it this way, it might seem like the city government was safely and surely eliminating the heretics, but the Eternal Church's counterattack was also formidable.
"Uaaaak!"
The ceiling opened and grotesquely long chitinous pincer legs came tumbling out. Some agents reacted quickly and counterattacked, but some couldn't shake off the countless hands and were caught.
In an instant, several agents were sucked into the hole in the ceiling, and after a brief moment, with terrible screams, red blood poured out of the hole like a waterfall.
At that scene like something from a horror movie, fear flickered in the eyes of some agents, while others were enraged by the fact that their comrades had died.
"Everyone calm down! Maintain formation, and have the mages deploy barriers against the ceiling enemies!"
It was Plimene who coldly rebuked such agents.
"The moment you stop, things will go exactly as they want. Don't loosen your guard on the perimeter. They are cunning. We must not move according to their will."
The agents who immediately regained their composure solidly reinforced their defenses. Afterward, the ceiling burst open several more times and pincer arms came down, but the barriers deployed by the mages blocked them.
Naturally, what came back were bullets filled with rage.
-Kieeeeeek!
With a screech, broken pincer arms fell along with bodily fluids. The corpse of the corrupted being that had been launching ambushes was the same. Unlike other corrupted beings, it was a creature resembling a spider with a thin, long body and eerily long limbs. However, the snout area had a structure where the mouth opened wide like a snake's, and it had double and triple rows of teeth like a shark's.
The agents trampled over such corpses with cold steps as they advanced.
Poisonous fog flowed out, but wind magic arose and drove the fog away. Suddenly overflowing digestive fluid reached up to their ankles, but they overcame the crisis by using liquefied mana water to instantly freeze it. The corrupted beings that had melted into the air and hidden their forms were discovered by agents with thermal detection while secretly approaching and were turned into honeycombs.
Even amid the attacks of corrupted beings carried out in all kinds of types and various methods, Plimene's solid command did not waver.
Sometimes the flesh walls themselves writhed and blocked the path, but when flamethrowers and firepower poured out, they instantly shriveled up.
Plimene frowned as she looked at the burning flesh walls.
"It seems there's a command system on their side as well."
The movements of the corrupted beings, which had initially charged recklessly, became precise and systematic. From the way they launched ambushes to the attempts to somehow attack this side according to the corrupted beings' characteristics, it was certain there was a commander.
"What should we do?"
"It seems we need to eliminate that one here."
If left alone, who knows what kind of extraordinary method they might use to attack this side. Until now, they had somehow been responding, but as time passed, it would be this side that became disadvantaged.
Though they didn't know how much fighting power the corrupted beings had, this writhing, horrific environment itself was gradually wearing down this side's mental strength.
Being cut off from the outside, they couldn't receive immediate support, and their stamina had been considerably depleted from continuous combat.
Now that they knew the enemy had a brain, they couldn't just leave it alone.
"But how do we find it? In this hellish place, if we take even one wrong step, the monster bastards will come running."
Plimene's adjutant, a man, asked through his gas mask. In this environment where the location couldn't even be specified, finding a commander who could be hiding anywhere was quite a perplexing task.
"You don't need to worry about that. Didn't you notice? Their offensive has become more urgent than before."
"That...feeling isn't entirely absent. Certainly, they were getting impatient with our movements."
However, wasn't that because this side's forces were too dangerous, so they were being cautious about us entering further inside?
"From the beginning, they had no intention of hiding their identity from the moment we broke in. That means they had always assumed the intrusion of external enemies. There's absolutely no reason for them to block us this urgently."
They might have set traps or prepared countermeasures accordingly. Though they didn't know how long these people had been operating in the shadows here, considering all situations, it was strange that they were blocking with such impatience now.
"It definitely means the path we're taking overlaps with where their command system is located. If you understand, everyone prepare. From now on, we can't waste even a single second."
The agents quickly checked their weapons, and the armored soldiers checked the condition of their suits. The mages drank the potions they had brought to recover mana and then checked for capsules as well.
Having finished their preparations in the time it took to catch their breath, they began moving again with an even more ominous momentum than before.
Watching that reliable appearance, Plimene suddenly seemed to feel something and looked in one direction.
"What's the matter? Did you perhaps discover something..."
"No. It's nothing."
Plimene shook her head and dismissed the unnecessary thought. However, her hand was unconsciously fiddling with the locket hanging on her necklace.
"Oh dear."
Basilio, who had finished dealing with the rushing corrupted beings, looked in one direction and muttered unconsciously. At his appearance, Delford, who had been returning his elongated nails to their original length, asked.
"What's the matter?"
"Didn't you notice?"
At that question, Delford raised his head and sniffed the air for a moment.
"I don't sense anything."
Though it looked like a ridiculous action, Delford's sense of smell was incomparably sensitive compared to dogs or wolves. He could analyze the opponent's emotional state just by smell, and more than half of the world he perceived consisted of olfactory elements.
Delford periodically smelled the air to track the locations of his other brothers and sisters, but perhaps due to the characteristics of this bizarre space, finding traces was not easy.
Just then, when Basilio showed a strange reaction, it was puzzling for him.
"Hmm. It seems you can't feel it. This might be because of my characteristics."
"You mean the power similar to these monsters?"
"Yes. At first, it was quite an irritating space, but it seems I've become somewhat accustomed to it while fighting them."
Basilio had to admit the source of his power, even if he didn't want to.
Thanks to that, should he say. Staying in this flesh-like space, he began to somewhat understand the characteristics of this place.
It was a realization close to instinct, without any rational or logical judgment involved. Should he call it the feeling of memories and information being forcibly imprinted deep in his soul against his will?
The feeling of another sense that humans couldn't possess opening up. That made Basilio's intuition even sharper, but at the same time made him feel complicated.
It meant he was becoming accustomed to the power of the existence he despised and was gradually being buried in it.
Setting aside such a state, Basilio recalled the sensation he had felt a moment ago.
"It seems a tremendous number of people from the city government side have entered."
"You could feel that?"
"Yes. Though I didn't want to."
"Considering the external forces, quite a lot must have come."
"Should I say they came as the first wave? Perhaps because this space is cut off from the outside, it seems they didn't all enter. Of course, even if only a portion came, that alone is considerable firepower."
Basilio could feel that the city government agents, guards, and soldiers were moving systematically and massacring the corrupted beings.
And even that at the center of their unified movement, there was an excellent commander who served as a solid pillar, commanding them.
'Plimene.'
The image of her looking at him with contempt and hatred-filled eyes came to mind.
"......"
"Lord Basilio?"
"Hmm? Ah. Sorry. I was lost in thought for a moment."
Delford didn't particularly point out Basilio's evasive attitude. Considering the power he possessed and the characteristics of this place, he would inevitably feel complicated in various ways. Therefore, Delford gentlemanly pretended not to notice out of consideration.
It was the moment they were about to move their feet again.
"Lord Basilio."
"Yes. I'm feeling it too."
Basilio and Delford. Without either taking the lead, both poured their respective attacks toward one wall.
As Delford's two hands cut through the air, five white slashes each were shot out. When Basilio extended his hand, countless blood spears appeared and pierced through the air with tremendous force.
"Well, I've received quite a rough welcome before I could even offer a greeting."
What revealed itself unharmed even amid that dangerous attack was Cardinal Zaxilos. His smiling eyes turned toward Basilio.
"I have something I want to discuss with you."